the weight

Many families have Christmas traditions.  Some families open presents on Christmas Eve.  Some wait until morning.  At our house, we’d wait.  See, Santa always made late-night special deliveries.  We'd awaken to open treasures unseen before Christmas morn…

But on Christmas Eve, my parents would allow my sisters and me to open one present.  Just one.  It was the best part of the night!  After delicious dinner and before boring church.  Of course I'd have already picked out the "best" present to unwrap HOURS before. 

I'd use a very scientific method:  The one that felt the heaviest. 

One year a large box mysteriously appeared early in the evening.  It surprised me.  I’d only taken my eyes off the Christmas tree when I closed them to sleep!  Suddenly, there it was!  Beaming beneath the lighted tree.  I just needed to feel it without my parents seeing me…

So just as the Aunts and Uncles arrived in their church clothes, holding their polite gifts…

                     ...I picked up the box and shook it!             

                                              THUMP!  THUMP!!  THUMP!!! 

                                                                               :::GASP:::  
 

It’s to me, from my parents… 

IT’S GOT TO BE THAT VIDEO GAME CONSOLE!

I immediately shoved the present back under the tree… just in time to greet the arriving family members. 

Don’t look suspicious.  Just act normal.  Just be cool.  Calm.  Collected.

Casual.

That seemed impossible now.

I didn't even hear what Aunt Barbara and Uncle Jay said as they squeezed the Merry Christmas out of me.  I'm quite sure it had something to do with how handsome I was/How much I'd grown since the last time they saw me/How they remembered when I...  blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, BLAH!

 I didn't care.  All I could think about was that present! 

Then Grandma and Grandpa arrived, and the whole ritual repeated all over again. 

"Look how handsome you are/How much you've grown/I remember when you..."  

This was torture! 

And just when I thought Greetings of Yuletide Cheer were complete, my Oma and Opa opened the door, and we were back on the “Merry Christmas”-Go-Round!  Kisses.  Hugs.  Kisses.  Hugs.  Spin.  Repeat.

It would be another 53 minutes and 13 seconds before I FINALLY got to hug the only thing I really cared about…

MY PRECIOUS! 

Dinner was a blur.  I was completely obsessed with opening that present.  I think somebody said grace.  I pretend prayed.  Eyes closed as cover. 

Why should I pray?  MY prayers had already been answered!

Obviously, I ate all my vegetables.  My parents didn't even have to ask!  ANYTHING to please them.  They were saints!  I said, "Please," and "Thank you,”  and finished my whole plate.  We were all going to church at midnight, and no one wanted to get too full and fall asleep.  I couldn’t fall asleep even if I wanted to!  I waited patiently to be excused.  I couldn’t sit still.  I was anxious.  I was antsy.  I WAS AMPED!!

MY TREASURE! 

I just wanted to rip into that present right then and there, skip church, and play with my game all night!  Until the sun came up!  Me and Santa, battling head-to-head!  Mom serving us muffins in the morning... 

BEST.  CHRISTMAS.  EVER. 

And maybe it was.  After all, I still have what I got from my parents that night.  And I still use it all the time…

But it’s not the video game console.  It wasn’t even a game.

When I finally tore into that present, I was crestfallen.  My heart sank.  I thought my parents had tricked me.  They started laughing at me!  I could feel the blood rushing to my ears… then the big, wet tears… 

THIS ISN’T WHAT I WANTED?  I HATE THIS!           

Later, as I sat in that painful pew at Midnight Mass, I prayed that tomorrow would FINALLY be the day for me…

Prayed for Santa’s Late-Night Special Delivery Service to come through…

Prayed to TRANSFORM THAT DUMB OL’ DICTIONARY I had opened into…

MY INCREDIBLY VICIOUS VIDEO GAME!! 

Please, God?  PLEASE!?  PLEASE!!   

PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzz...  I prayed so hard I finally fell asleep on my mother's shoulder.  My sleepy saliva, like translucent tinsel decorating our Christmas sweaters….

In the end, I had no need to ask for God’s help.  I was lucky enough to be born with wonderful parents who spoiled me on Christmas. 

I got it.

But ask me if I still have that AWESOME-MOST-INCREDIBLY-VICIOUS VIDEO GAME… 

Nope.  I outgrew it by the 9th grade.  Sold it at a yard sale with some stuffed animals... 

But that Dumb Ol' Dictionary helped me all through middle school.  All through high school.  All through college. 

All through graduate school…

And I couldn't have made it (or this) without it!

"out to where but the rocks remain"

"(Talk to Me of) Mendocino"

McGarrigle Sisters

HEADS, I WIN...TAILS, YOU LOSE!

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CHAHAHUI!!

ST. LOUIS & THE BEAT-UP MUSTANGS at BLUE CAFE,

LONG BEACH, 4/9/11

in case you missed it...

THE THINGZ at THE HOUSE OF BLUES, HOLLYWOOD

JANUARY 7, 2011

                                                

BEWARE! THE KOCHTOPUS!

following up my post on the koch brothers...  here's a great video of senator bernie sanders describing the koch brothers 'echo chamber' that repeats and amplifies right-wing orthodoxy until it penetrates mainstream media outlets...

the blame game

(tip o' the energy dome to my colleague linda for the cartoon.)

Q:  who's the only stake-holder in public education that ISN'T held accountable?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

HOPE YOUR NEW YEAR HAS STARTED OFF AS WELL AS MINE... CHECK IT:
THE THINGZ ARE PLAYING THE HOLLYWOOD HOUSE OF BLUES MAIN STAGE TONIGHT!!
I'M SO EXCITED!!! 
HERE'S A VIDEO SHOT RECENTLY FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO AREN'T GONNA MAKE IT... :)

MERRY XMAS!!

              Live at The Redwood Bar in LA, 12/12/10

actually, this year i DID get what i wanted for xmas:
tickets to today's game versus the heat!  i might be on TV!!
                              GO LAKERS!!!

in case you missed this...

we'll be playing the double down in vegas, january 15...
come rock out with us!

deep thought

i'm reading a biography of louis armstrong to my class.  we were discussing jim crow laws, and one of my students asked:

mr. c, do you think if martin luther king hadn't done what he did for african americans, we'd [latinos] have to drink from different water fountains and go to separate schools too?

hmmm...

memoir recommendation

here's a great memoir i shared with my class on friday called,
"the halloween that ended my childhood," by ann hood.

it's definitely more sophisticated than my christmas piece
(see "the weight of words"), and a bit longer, but a nice mentor text for my students (and me) to learn from nonetheless.

enjoy!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

this week's treasure moment

while discussing a part in ramona the pest where she doesn't want to chase davey, the boy she's spent the last couple of chapters trying to kiss, i had my students write what ramona was thinking, as if they were her.

one of my girls wrote,

i don't need to chase you. in a few years, you'll be chasing me!

so true. 5th graders are hilarious!

harry reid is THE MAN!

i wonder if sharon angle supporters would feel the same way about harry reid if they read this.

after all, he was the guy that actually ran the mob out of las vegas in the late 70's. (remember casino?)

he was a boxer, whose fistfight opponents included his father and father-in-law (the former, after he'd been beating up on his mom, and the latter because he didn't want his daughter to marry harry).

of course he's a hero to liberals (or should be) because he successfully blocked bush from privatizing social security after his 2004 reelection (and before wall street went bust).

but the thing that resonated with me the most was reid's take on meeting bush in the oval office:

"I never went to Kennebunkport as a kid,” Reid recalls. “I never went anywhere. And I’ve got no blue blood in my veins, just some desert sand. So as he and I sat there in the Oval Office, I said little in return.”

there's more, but suffice to say, the caricature of a wimpy, milquetoast, meek guy who needs to "man up,"* is completely destroyed by the facts.


*incidentally, doesn't "man up" mean to go from a zone defense to man-on-man? i don't think these people think so... but maybe i've just been watching too much basketball...

INVASION OF THE BROWN MARMORATED STINK BUGS!!!

i heard about this a few weeks ago when steve benen wrote about them at the washington monthly. i thought it was a very instructive piece about the right-wing agenda in this country, specifically, the reiteration and amplification of reagan's proclamation 30 years ago that, "government is the problem."

according to the washington post, these titular stink bugs (halyomorpha halys) have been destroying enough flora along the eastern seaboard that 15 congressmen have asked the USDA and EPA to step in to help farmers and local industries deal with the problem.

the best part is, of the 15 lawmakers, 8 are republican...

BENEN (9/26/10): In other words, faced with a [sic] environmental problem, the first instinct from conservative Republican politicians is to ask the federal government to do something. Indeed, they're specifically asking for federal bureaucrats to sweep into action and use expanded federal regulations to help people.

Hmm.

There seems to be a bit of disconnect here between Republican ideology and real-world problems. On the one hand, conservative lawmakers like Bartlett hate "big government," the EPA, federal regulations, and government bureaucrats. This year, plenty of GOP candidates are talking about eliminating the EPA, firing parts of the federal workforce, scrapping regulations, and slashing spending on various agencies.

Shouldn't conservative lawmakers, right about now, expect the free market to offer a solution to the stink-bug problem? Why hasn't the GOP offered everyone a tax credit for fly swatters and facemasks? Why aren't Tenthers running around demanding to know where, exactly, the Constitution empowers the federal government to deal with an insect infestation?

there's more, but it always bugs me ::ahem:: when conservatives pretend that government can do no good, that the free market is always the best solution, and that regulations are socialist.

they know better.

yet we've heard this same refrain on a variety of topics--from social security to health care, medicare to medicaid--for the past 30 years from the right-wing.

this just demonstrates that their claims are disingenuous at best.

too bad i can't get the EPA to regulate the stink of THEIR B.S...

a must-read

here's jane mayer's brilliant new yorker expose of the billionaire koch brothers' ever-expanding, increasingly-influential "kochtopus" that has been bank-rolling an anti-democratic agenda (including the current tea party movement) for the last 30 years in our country.

this piece is important to read because these guys prefer to stay anonymous, while very visible "actors" (tv talking heads, politicians, and their supporters) play out the scripts that their think tanks write to forward their pro-business agenda...

it's all very disheartening for someone like myself who believes that the people, not the powerful, should control the destiny of this country.

it's on like donkey kong!

the thingz at "the great pumpkin bash,"
malone's bar & grill
10/15/10

last week's treasure moment

i'm reading ramona the pest to my class. while discussing a part where ramona doesn't want to share with her neighbor, howie, i asked my students to write about a time when they didn't want to share with someone...

here's what i found in one of my student's reader's response notebook:

i like to share because sometimes i don't have the stuff that i need...

sweet and an independent thinker! i love my class this year!!

The Weight of Words

Many families have Christmas traditions. Some families open presents on Christmas Eve. Some wait until morning. In our family, Santa always made late-night deliveries, so we'd awake to find heretofore unseen treasures on Christmas morn. But on Christmas Eve, my parents would always allow my sisters and me to open one present. It was the best part of the night, after delicious dinner and before boring church. Of course I'd have already picked out the "best" present to unwrap hours before. I'd use a very scientific method: whichever one was the heaviest.

One year a mysterious box appeared early in the evening. And even though for the entire month of December I had been ever-so-attentive to the quantity of presents always present (as any 10-year-old worth his/her suburban salt would be), suddenly, there it was. Beaming beneath the lighted tree. So just as the Aunts and Uncles, in their church clothes with their polite gifts, arrived and embraced Mom & Dad, I seized my opportunity...

...I picked up the box and shook it!

THUMP! THUMP!!THUMP!!! :::GASP:::

It's from my parents...

It's got to be that game console!

Then, as quickly as I had grabbed it, I shoved the present back under the tree, just in time to greet the arriving family members without arousing suspicion. Just act normal. Just be cool. Calm. Collected.

That seemed impossible now.

I didn't even hear what Aunt Barbara and Uncle Jay said as they squeezed the Merry Christmas out of me. I'm quite sure it was something about how handsome I was/How much I'd grown/How they remembered when I... blah, blah, blah, blah, blah... I didn't care. All I could think about was that present! Then Grandma and Grandpa arrived, and the whole ritual repeated all over again. "Look how handsome you are/How much you've grown/I remember when you..." This was torture! And just when I thought Greetings of Yuletide Cheer were complete, my Oma and Opa opened the door, and we were back on the “Merry Christmas”-Go-Round! It would be another 53 minutes and 13 seconds before I FINALLY got to hug the only thing I really cared about at that point... My Precious!

Dinner was a blur. I was completely obsessed with opening that present. I think somebody said grace, but I was pretend praying, eyes closed only to cover my covetous thoughts. Why should I pray? My prayers had already been answered. Obviously, I ate my vegetables--anything to please my Suddenly-Saintly Parents--they didn't even have to ask. I said, "Please," and "Thank you," and sat still even though I was feeling antsy. My TREASURE! We were all going to church at midnight, so we didn't want to get too full and fall asleep. But I would never fall asleep. I was too amped! I just wanted to rip into that present right then and there, skip church, and play with my game all night till the first light of Christmas day! Me and Santa, battling head-to-head, Mom serving us muffins in the morning...

BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER.

And maybe it was. After all, I still have what I got from Mom & Dad that night. And I still use it all the time.

But I didn't think so when I finally tore into it after dinner. I was crestfallen. I thought my parents had tricked me.

Later, as I sat in that painful pew at Midnight Mass, paying little heed to the impending Birth of Our Baby Savior, I prayed that tomorrow would FINALLY be The Big Day for me. Prayed for Christmas Day Redemption. Prayed to turn water into wine... to transform that Dumb Ol' Deceptively Heavy Dictionary into my INCREDIBLY VICIOUS VIDEO GAME! Please, God? PLEASE!? PLEASE!! PLEeeeezzzzzzzzzz... I prayed so hard I finally fell asleep on my mother's shoulder, my sleepy saliva, like translucent tinsel decorating our Christmas sweaters. At least I would provide the Preacher some Sunday morning sermon material for the following week (Typically, the least-attended Sunday of the year, so the "We're-all-children-of-God-resting-on-His-shoulders" fluff sermon wasn't heard by many besides my family and me). I guess in my passionate pleading to The Almighty to RECEIVE, I ended up GIVING after all.

And isn't that what Christmas should be about?

Ultimately, I had no need for divine intervention beyond being lucky enough to be born with wonderful parents who spoiled me on Christmas. But ask me if I still have that Awesome, Most-Viciously Gnarly Video Game… Nope. I outgrew it by the 9th grade. But that Dumb Ol' Dictionary helped me all through Middle & High School, College and Graduate School, and I couldn't have made it (or this) without it!

Nick & Elvis in SF!

nick lowe, great american music hall, 10/1/10


elvis costello, great american music hall, 10/1/10

The Clouds Live in the LA River

nevermind.

sorry.

hope to transmit again soon...

i'm baaaaaaaaaack

testing. testing. 1, 2. 1, 2. is this thing on?

it's about to be.

more soon...

long beach green festival

The Sky


the clouds @ green festival, 5/9/09

here's what i did instead of working in my classroom on saturday. we played on the "fire stage" at the "art park" on elm and broadway. it was a lot of fun... better than working in my classroom!

periodic coffee tables

since we have to teach the elements and the periodic table in fifth grade (something i wasn't taught until 9th grade), i thought these periodic coffee tables were pretty cool. maybe i could even buy one for my classroom with my cotsen money...

this one's neato because it has actual "embedded element samples" (except for the radioactive ones--boo!) contained under the glass top, and it only costs $9500.

there's also this one made of all wood. you can read the whole story of its creation (with pix) here.

seems like something our resident science expert, mrs. mank, would enjoy. making we could all chip in and buy one for her birthday!

HAPPY ST. BILL HICKS DAY!

back when i started this blog, i wrote a post about seeing bill hicks at UCI in 1992 and how it changed my life. i even wrote a rap called "it's only a ride" inspired by his words... well, today is st. bill hicks day, so i thought it only appropriate to post those words that mentored me.

and btw, i hope it's not true, but there are rumors on these here inter-tubes that russell crowe is slated to play hicks in an upcoming biopic. ugh.

HAPPY EASTER!

scholar dollars

my principal asked us to share some of our trimester 2 successes, and i have to say that my scholar dollar has been quite a useful tool/behavior incentive in my classroom. i know it's not an original idea--plenty of others have used classroom "money"-- but it is an original design/drawing. thanks to wendy wahlen for encouraging me to be gender inclusive with my design, (so P.C.) although it looks like the female character is missing a couple of the scholar "icons." can you spot which ones?

the clouds

the clouds @ viento y agua, long beach 3/20/09

photo by mom

it was wonderful to have so many people come out to support the clouds and me at viento y agua on friday! my thanks to the following: mom & dad, sis(!) & insane cougar(!!), dave neely, robo, sam, mike & kim, stephanie & marco, jenny, linda & david mank, and quite surprisingly, my former VP lucy salazar and her husband! it was nice to see all of your loving, smiling faces.

OXOX's TO YOU ALL!

red eye

the thingz play a show in huntington beach, deep in the heart of OC darkness, and find proof of de-evolution...
our only choice: play a dev-o cover.

the thingz @ gallagher's, 3/13/09

on-line drum set

make your own beats on-line!!

i wonder if my principal would object to my students using this in the computer lab... lemme check the 5th grade music standards...

well, it's definitely covered by standard 2.0 "creative expression," but the lab might sound like a rave!

we'll have to close the door... :>

capitalism

bill watterson was a genius. check out this calvin and hobbes on old-school capitalism...

so funny and so prescient, it's sad...

thank you card!

i found this in my mailbox this morning and thought i'd share it with you all. it's a thank you card from the students in room 72 that didn't go to camp! (see this post) shout out to mrs. mank for not only encouraging her students to show their appreciation but binding it into a cool book! i love it!

here's the front cover:

and back...

inside artwork:

and my favorite...

i like this one because if you look closely in the upper right-hand corner, there's a monkey. see, to get to know each other's names, we played a name game called, "monkey goes to the moon." i just loved that this student included that little detail. of course, this wasn't just an art project--they wrote letters to accompany the pictures that were equally cute--but i was particularly tickled by the illustrations, so i decided to share those.

thanks again, mrs. mank!

more CPAC fun!

maybe i need to teach middle school or high school... it'd be fun to challenge someone like this: a 14 year old, future fox news pundit at (you guessed it), CPAC.

battle drill

if i were battling that republican rapper (see below), here'd be my flow. (i wrote this after bush "won" reelection in 2004. eat your heart out, chuck d--it's mr. c!)

TOP GUN
elementary education, basic facts:
rubber stamp government contracts,
administration partisan hacks
attack dissidents here at home on iraq
our boys are coming back packed in boxes
graveyard crosses, acceptable losses,
shell-shocked, can't talk to anyone, and
don't feel safe without a gun.
all these memories: eating rotten MRE's, IED's,
infantry, cavalry, civilian casualties,
indiscriminate killing in the cities,
disease-filled water, no electricity...
it's a pity. who's the example?
bullet through the temple, brain burst like a pimple.
it's so simple to sit in the middle,
twiddle your thumbs and act real dumb
while we got fundamental differences to settle,
bush back in the saddle,
pot call the kettle black--
he use attacks on the twin towers to act like a cowboy
when he's just a coward.
a super-power in decline:
from the cave to the moon and back in no time
with this illegitimate leader, second-grade reader,
mr. top gun-cod-piece-theater, wouldn't listen to senior or CIA.
he said, the sunni? the shia? what difference does it make?
it's war for heaven's sake--there's bound to be mistakes.
hearts and minds splattered on the pavement and
on TV, they're sold as entertainment...
but that's the media arrangement:
repeat government lies for the right payment,
and read prepared statements like,
"we will be greeted with flowers at our feet,"
"parades in the street," maybe take "six weeks."
WMD a positivity, diplomacy has failed, only ONE possibility:
"invade their countries, kill their leaders, convert them to christianity."*
it's insanity--the drumbeat of war--voices of peace all but ignored by this
illegitimate leader, second-grade reader,
mr. top gun-cod-piece-theater, wouldn't listen to senior...

*ann coulter quote. all other quotes taken completely out of context.

rage against the (liberal media) machine

this was just too good to pass up: video of a conservative MC at the CPAC (conservative political action conference) whose whole act consists of spitting right-wing talking points. i love that he had his "epiphany" (obviously not a teacher-- he didn't say, "ah-ha moment.") after listening to michael savage for 10 minutes!!! for those who don't know who that is, michael saveage (ne, michael weiner) is a former-liberal compatriot of allen ginsberg-turned conservative talk show host, who regularly shouts obsenities over the AM airwaves ("i hope you get AIDS and die!") while getting positively apoplectic about illegal aliens and "islamo-fascists." he's a real class act.

anyway, eat your heart out, zach de la rocha:

professional reading

as a professional it's important that i keep abreast of new research, new books, and new data in the field of education in order to continue my growth as a life-long learner and improve as a teacher. that's why i do professional reading. my principal provides a good deal of these resources to our staff, and we have a bi-weekly "think tank" session where we discuss the selection(s) and round-table our ideas on how to implement and/or supplement what we glean from the readings in our classrooms. i also encounter articles and books in my own reading, or my COTSEN mentor will share an article or book that she thinks might be beneficial and/or interesting to me. most of the time i can find something useful or utilitarian in these readings, but sometimes i just can't get past the style of writing.

i know it sounds petty, but style and voice are important to me. and there's a balance that must be struck: on the one hand, it can't be too dry, too didactic; but on the other, i don't want my metacognitive voice to be saying, "alright, enough presuppositions, get to the f'n point!" many of the articles that i read last year for my masters degree fell into the former camp--way too formal and completely coma-inducing. but recently i've encountered the latter--too many, "i know what you're thinking: this can't work in my classroom, but give it a shot"-styled pieces. does that make sense? basically, while i'm reading it, i'm yelling, "cut to the chase already!" lucy calkins' writing particularly grates on me in this way. (there. i said it, and i feel better. she's got amazing ideas on reading and writing, but she works my last nerve!)

the funny thing is, when i expressed my disdain for calkins' style of writing at our COTSEN inquiry meeting, my mentor just rolled her eyes and looked away! maybe she was still smarting from my critique of her first pick, what great teachers do differently, by todd whitaker. not only was the "no-duh" factor staggeringly high in that book, his analogies were painfully trite.

the good news is, our principal has just given us an AMAZING article on reading aloud that has energized me with some good ideas that i want to try out immediately. more on that as it develops...

the district vs. LB unified school district

the cover story in the feb. 25-mar. 3 edition of the district just might stir up a little controversy. basically, it asserts that my employer, LBUSD, is wasting money that should be used to teach poor/disadvantaged students on teacher trainings and professional development.

the article by diana bosetti begins with a disgruntled former teacher, tonina johnson, accusing her ex-principal, robert williams, of forcing her out of her job after her second year of teaching because she dared to speak up against a training at the UCLA conference center in lake arrowhead. it goes on to document some of the expenses LBUSD has paid for such trainings, while in the midst of a budget crisis, up until april 2008. it's not a flattering picture, to say the least, and bob williams takes the brunt of the criticism.

the interesting part for me is that i know bob... well, kind of... (probably not well enough to call him bob, but he's an acquaintance of my mom's, and we've met several times. she worked with him at monroe, before he was promoted to principal at lincoln.) he seems like a nice guy, and my mom, as well as my teacher friends at lincoln, have corroborated this. that's why the claims made in the article seem a bit odd.

it's clear from the story that tonina was overwhelmed by her new position. as any inexperienced, emergency-credentialed teacher (as i was) can attest, the first few years are tough, and any time spent outside the classroom can seem like wasted time that should be spent getting experience in the classroom. unfortunately, the first few years are chock-full of training--days spent away from your classroom and your students. i remember feeling very frustrated having to go to these all-day trainings (EEEI, open court, math, etc.) when i thought i was getting better training in my classroom with my actual students. so i feel her pain.

the part that bothered me the most though was the council members who hid under their desks when confronted by ms. bosetti about these necessary training expenditures. teachers need to be treated as professionals, and if that means paying for a training at a conference outside of town or a hotel in downtown, then so be it. give us the respect we are due! (and don't run and hide when you're asked about it, jon meyer, you sad sack!) team-building and professional development are of paramount importance to our district's mission of "every student, every day."

at least mary stanton, vp of the school board, didn't duck the questions and was openly supportive:

Stanton further asserts that there are benefits to holding retreats out of the area, suggesting that if they were held locally school employees might go AWOL and sneak home.

“If we hold these conferences across town, it doesn’t work because they can just leave,” she says. “Part of the problem with these schools is that the staff doesn’t talk to each other. They do not communicate, which is one of the reasons their school is in the place [underachieving] that it is. The superintendent believes very strongly in team building and that it leads to better communication between teachers, and I support him.” (emphasis added)

exactly.

no camp for me

so sad... while my fifth grade colleagues and most of our students enjoyed a winter wonderland at camp oakes in big bear, ca. i stayed behind... no 3 feet of freshly fallen snow for me. no sled runs. no snowmen or snow angels. ::sniffle, sniffle:: just me and 31 students whose parents were too lame or too afraid to let their children have this once-in-a-lifetime experience. (i realize that that last statement is a judgment call, but it happens to be true, which gives it the extra force of veracity.)

ultimately, this was my choice. since i've had so many things on my plate in my personal life, and since i didn't think it was cool to give the fourth grade teachers 6 extra students each, i asked the principal if i could stay behind with these students and take care of some unfinished business at home. this would not only help me, but eliminate the problem of placing more students in already-crowded classes--a win-win situation.

thankfully, he was cool with the idea, and thankfully, the students were great! the mutuality of their situation helped these students from disparate classes form an instant community, and we had an awesome little tribe by the end of our first day! we reviewed math concepts in geometry, did some reader's workshop, and i got to confer with students on their realistic fiction writing (my favorite). of course, i also had to get some buy-in, so i promised that i'd bring in my drum set on friday if their temporary tribe maintained decorum.

it worked. i brought in my kit, and the students took turns trying it out. i taught them all about the components of the set and how to make a simple beat. since one of the students already knew how to play, (he's been playing since he was 6.) we jammed together. it was awesome--i played guitar, and he rocked the beats, while all the other students sang and clapped their hands to their hearts' content!

v-day show!

we played an awesome valentine's show last night at a pirate-themed bar in LA called the redwood. it was even the LA WEEKLY pick of the week!! plus, there were star sightings, too! that creepy dude from lost (ben?) was there, and rumor has it, spiderman (t-mac, as he let's me call him) was also... my buddy james got ben's autograph, and after the show, kim fowley gave us his card and said he wanted to play us on his radio show! (kim fowley is probably most famous for creating the runaways with joan jett and lita ford--you can check out his wiki info here.)

we played a great set, and we got a great response from the audience. it was nice to have a whittier alum, laura velez, show up and support us, not to mention our wonderful LBC fans who made the trek on such a hectic/romantic night.

thank you all--i really appreciate everyone's support!

"we're just that lazy"

this is definitely NSFW, but it's just too funny not to post... especially since my former-favorite aunt lupe had one of these in her house in DF which we made fun of before we got kicked out!

enjoy!

trailing clouds of glory...

here's the wordsworth poem, "intimations of imortality from recollections of early childhood" that the blind mr. randolph knows by heart in the great gilly hopkins. mind you, it's 208 lines (7 pages in the oxford book of english verse: 1250-1900), but here's the beginning of my favorite stanza (line 59) quoted in TGGH:

our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
the soul that rises with us, our life's star
hath had elsewhere its setting,
and cometh from afar:
not in entire forgetfulness,
and not in utter nakedness,
but trailing clouds of glory do we come
from god, who is our home...

interactive read aloud

one of my favorite parts of reading workshop is the interactive read aloud. right now we are in the middle of the great gilly hopkins by katherine paterson. it's about an ingeniously manipulative and racist foster child that gets sent to live with an unflappable "religious fanatic" and a "mentally retarded" boy. throw in a blind neighbor who loves william wordsworth, a hippy mom who strings her "sweet galadriel" along, an african-american teacher unwilling to give up on her (titular) student, and you've got a compelling, newbury award-winning novel. my class is completely captivated by it. and it's the perfect book to stimulate students' "thinking journeys."

that's why when i was asked to demonstrate the interactive read aloud at our staff meeting today, i chose to read it instead of a picture book. the book is an instant conversation-starter, a book that causes adults' and students' metacognitive voices to literally scream reactions out loud. as a matter of fact, when i read it in my class, that's usually what happens: students' metacognitive voices burst forth, spilling from their brains out of their mouths! it's pretty fun to hear...

but our staff was a different animal. so stoic. so expressionless. so silent. as i modeled my thinking journey aloud, their silence made me very uncomfortable and threw me off my game. i'm used to the give and take "on stage"--the reciprocation-- whether i'm performing with an instrument or a book. i got next to nothing. i was about to read more, then i thought i should cut my losses because it seemed i was boring everyone...

once i got back to my seat, i did get a few questions and comments about the book, not to mention some very nice emails afterward, but overall it wasn't what i expected. i felt intimidated and a bit silly for putting myself out there. it definitely made me appreciate my class all the more!

this is why you're fat

i gotta admit: when i first saw this SNL parody, i thought it was just satire...

but after seeing this website, i'm not so sure it was satirical!

corndog pizza

Mega Pizza

A pizza with a hot dog wrapped in bacon pigs in a blanket crust. The center is filled with italian sausage, ham, bacon, bacon bits, sliced tomato, mushroom, onion, peppers, garlic chips, basil, black pepper and tomato sauce. It can also be flavored with maple syrup and ketchup.

some of the students at my school look like they might eat some of this stuff... good thing teachers know CPR!

john bolton gets told

i've had this video lying around my desktop for a while, so i thought i'd share it. this is for all (2?) of those people that still think getting rid of saddam was a great thing for the people of iraq.

an iraqi woman tells john bolton what's up...

favorite line:

i've lost more relatives in the last 4 years than under 30 years of saddam, so i don't think you can tell me how dangerous saddam's dictatorship was.

ouch. he got told.

of course he still acts like a smug m'f'er in my opinion...

elizabeth alexander

i loved watching the inauguration with my class on tuesday! it was incredibly moving, and aside from one of my african-american boys falling asleep, my class was transfixed. they clapped, cheered, and basically acted like they were actually on the mall. (of course i had to explain to them that this wasn't the kind of mall they thought it was...)

i especially enjoyed the poet, elizabeth alexander, although my colleague and i agreed that she didn't do the best job delivering her poem...she wasn't exactly a shining example of fluency.

the next evening, one of my favorite political pundits, stephen colbert, had her as a guest on his show and made her explain the difference between a metaphor and a lie.

hilarious. enjoy.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Elizabeth Alexander

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Funny Political News

Christian Bale Parody
Joke of the Day

theresa anderson@hotel cafe

she was amazing! she performed her first song completely a capella at the front of the stage, stomping her platform heels to keep the beat. i was immediately transfixed to say the least. she then proceeded to take off her shoes and captivate us with her blend of soulful folk (soulfolk?) and humorous anecdotes, all the while skillfully manipulating her delay pedals with her bare feet (podipulating?).

and just like her video in my previous post, her whole record, hummingbird, go! was recorded alone in her kitchen in NOLA, so when she mentioned her "back-up singers," the kitchenettes, and actually introduced each "singer" by name, describing their physical attributes and personalities, we all had a good laugh. she was so cute!

after the show i got to briefly talk to her about our mutual musical friend (mike dillon), holding up the line to buy her CD as she autographed it for me with a heart! (::sigh::)

a.m. letter test prep

here's what it looks like with a little test prep thrown in...

i heart the a.m. letter

i love the morning letter for many reasons, but mostly because i get to come in and begin teaching right away. before i began using it, i felt like i wasted valuable teaching time with students fumbling around for journals or pencils, chatting at their seats, checking homework, etc. now i get right down to business.

here's the routine: students drop off their backpacks at their seats, "park it on the carpet," (my new catchphrase), and i begin teaching a language arts content standard immediately. then, they go back to their seats and try it with another letter i've composed that hits the same content standard that i taught in the letter. it takes about 15 minutes--quick and painless. i like it WAY better than DOL (or "D.O.HELL"--my other new catchphrase). it's way faster, and it models what good writers do: they write everyday.

i can also teach a lot more than just punctuation, grammar, and spelling. last november, before we tracked off, i used it to teach the revision strategy of combining sentences. and since the CST has questions like, "how would these sentences best be combined?" i get test prep in too. bonus!

here's what that looked like: